JEFFREY BROWN:
Bill Brands, what do you think about that question about how fixed is his legacy and what are people looking for in this library and museum?
H.W. BRANDS, University of Texas at Austin: I think there are two aspects of the legacy question.
One is the effect of George Bush's presidency on the United States. The other is the effect of his presidency on the world. The effect of the presidency on the world, that is a long-term project and we won't know the outcome of that for 10 years, 20 years, 30 years.
But his legacy in the United States, I think — I think George Bush is going to be remembered as the presidency — as the president who presided over the end of the American century, at a time when the American century was when America kept guns and butter both.
And during the Bush years, we discovered, well, we're not going to be able to have guns and butter both, and we might not be able to have either one. The invasion of Iraq is going to be — is already being seen as something that was unnecessary and very expensive. And so presidents, including the current president, are going to go very slowly into anything like that in the future.
And then on the domestic side, there is the whole business of the tax cuts. And the Republican Party now, as a result of the Bush years, has signed on to the idea that you cut taxes first and worry about the deficit later. That's really a reversal of what Republicans used to stand for.
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